It's Buffy
by angelparis
Summary: This is what I imagine happened once the cameras stopped rolling at the end of Angel's 2nd season.


Title: "It's Buffy"  
  
Summary: this is what I imagine happened after the cameras stopped rolling at the end of Angel's 2nd season.  
  
Disclaimer: All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and WB et al.  
  
  
  
**************************************************************************** ******************************  
  
"Home sweet -"  
  
His happiness quickly disappeared when he saw her.  
  
"Willow?"  
  
He was suddenly rooted to the floor at the top of the steps that led down into the sunken lobby. "What's she doing here?" he thought. "She has no real reason to come to LA."  
  
His friends, new and old, gathered around behind him. Cordelia and Wesley were both surprised and confused as to why she would be here.  
  
"W-" Cordelia started to say. Something stopped her from asking a question she already knew the answer to.  
  
Angel's stomach began clenching itself into a tightness he'd never felt before as he watched her slowly get to her feet.  
  
Her sombre face, her sad eyes. And he knew.  
  
"It's Buffy." He could barely say the words.  
  
He stood frozen as Willow managed to take a small step towards him.  
  
"Who's Buffy?" he heard Fred ask somewhere in the distance.  
  
Wesley turned to face Fred and Gunn. "Gunn, could you take Fred upstairs and get her settled in to one of the rooms?"  
  
Gunn was already beginning to feel like the proverbial fifth wheel and knew it was time to play the game of 'anywhere but here'. "Sure," he said in a low voice.  
  
Gunn turned to look at Fred who was already headed towards the staircase. Gunn followed her and they were soon out of sight.  
  
Wesley stepped forward and looked at Angel who was standing motionless.  
  
"I can't believe it," Cordelia thought as she descended the steps and moved towards the red couch. As if in slow motion, she sat down at one end. "I don't believe this."  
  
Wesley shifted his gaze to Willow who was still to utter a word.  
  
"Willow," he said. It surprised him. He hadn't expected his voice to crack from saying one two-syllabled word. "What happened?"  
  
Willow's lips parted slightly, but when she looked from Wesley to Angel, she was suddenly unable to find the words. "I don't have to say it," she thought to herself. The sad, lost look on Angel's face was almost too much for her to withstand. "He knows she's gone." That thought almost reduced her to tears for the zillionth time in only a couple of days.  
  
Wesley moved down the stairs and as he crossed the floor, he said gently, "Come and sit down."  
  
Willow allowed Wesley to guide her back to where she'd been seated. She sat, shoulders slightly hunched, hands pressed firmly against the seat. She took a couple of deep but shaky breaths before wrapping her arms across her stomach.  
  
"Take your time," Wesley said gently.  
  
"I don't know if Angel told you what was going on in Sunnydale when he was there after Mrs Summers' funeral," Willow said softly as she looked from Wesley to Angel and back.  
  
"She told you I'd visited her?" Angel thought.  
  
"Not really," Wesley said carefully after looking at Angel.  
  
"Oh. There was this big bad demon in Sunnydale for a good part of the year. She called herself Glory. It turned out she wasn't a demon but a God from another Hell dimension. She was looking for a key to open a portal to that dimension."  
  
"And you knew where the key was?"  
  
"Yeah. The key was Dawn."  
  
"Buffy's sister?" Cordelia asked as she looked at Willow.  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"But how could she be a key?"  
  
"It's a long story, but the short version is that the key's a sort of mystical energy that some monks gave human form. They sent the key to Buffy in the form of a sister. Giles found out that Glory needed to perform a ritual bloodletting in order to open the portal to her dimension. If the portal stayed open, then the walls between all demon dimensions would come down and everything would bleed together, metaphorically and literally."  
  
Angel stepped down then sat on the steps. He hung his head. He knew how this story was going to finish.  
  
"Dawn's blood was needed to open the portal?" Wesley queried.  
  
Willow nodded once. "Buffy reached Dawn but the portal had already been opened. It was then that Buffy realised that Dawn was made from her.her flesh and blood. Buffy leapt off the platform and into the portal and." Willow had to stop. Her voice was shaking badly at the memory of what had happened.  
  
"She died?" Wesley queried softly.  
  
Willow nodded as tears coursed down her cheeks.  
  
Cordelia looked over at Angel who was sitting on the steps, his hands hiding the features of his downcast face, then she looked at Willow.  
  
"Who's going to look after Dawn?" she asked.  
  
"She's staying with Xander and Anya at the moment, but me and Tara will stay with her at the house. We've tried to locate Mr Summers but no one seems to know exactly where he is."  
  
"And the slaying?" Wesley asked.  
  
"We're all taking turns patrolling. There aren't that many creatures of the supernatural persuasion around at the moment, which is good, but Giles says it's just a matter of time before they return."  
  
"So there's no slayer now," Cordelia said slowly. "I mean with Faith in jail and everything.there's no slayer."  
  
"I know. For the last five years Buffy was there to kill all the evil things that the Hellmouth decided to spew out," Willow said as she glanced at Angel who hadn't moved from the step. "Now there's only a construction worker, two witches, an ex-demon and a former Watcher to do all that."  
  
"Do you guys sing? Because you could all be like an updated version of the Village People," Cordelia commented. Willow and Wesley both looked at Cordelia as if she'd suddenly grown a second head. "What?" she asked.  
  
"I'm going to try and forget you said that," Willow said. "Besides, things don't usually turn out so good for me when I attempt to sing."  
  
As Cordelia looked up at Wesley, she said, "Maybe we could take her to the Karaoke bar."  
  
"The same Karaoke bar that we crashed into earlier tonight?" Wesley reminded her.  
  
"Right," Cordelia remembered.  
  
Willow glanced at her watch then stood up. She looked at Cordelia and Wesley and requested in a low voice, "Could I have a few minutes with Angel?"  
  
"Of course," Wesley said.  
  
"Yeah," Cordelia said in a low voice.  
  
Wesley and Cordelia moved towards the office and closed the door behind them.  
  
Willow turned and looked at Angel whose head was still bowed. She took tentative steps towards him then sat down on the step beside him.  
  
"She made the only choice she could have, Angel," Willow said in a soft voice.  
  
"Yeah," Angel whispered.  
  
He was still looking down at the floor. Willow raised her hand and let it hover several inches above Angel's back. "Do I or don't I?" she thought. "Angel's never really been the sort of person to share his emotions except with.no. I mean, he'll be okay. Right? He's been around for nearly 250 years. He's seen it all and been the cause of most of it. But then he'd never known love like he did with.no. I won't. It'd be too weird anyway. Big no to weirdness." Willow slowly lowered her hand back down to the floor.  
  
"Did she suffer?" Angel asked in a voice that was barely audible.  
  
"I wish I could say no, but." Willow took a moment. "I mean I could if you want me to, but, you know me, I don't lie well under pressure."  
  
"How's Dawn?" he asked in a broken whisper.  
  
"Physically she's fine. Mentally and emotionally though." Willow shook her head slowly. "She's been through so much the past couple of months with Mrs Summers and now. It's going to take a long time for everyone's wounds to heal.including yours."  
  
Angel sits silently for a moment. "Are you okay?" he asks carefully as he turns his head slightly to see her.  
  
"I'm.I don't know.it's hard. You know? There are moments when I'm fine, and then I think of her and it's waterworks all over again. But I'm coping with the help of the others. We're one big support network of copingness at the moment."  
  
Angel turns his head and gazes down at the floor again.  
  
"Angel, I know you're not real big on sharing feelings and everything, but don't push your friends away. Let Wesley and Cordelia be there for you, because it's when you think you don't need them, that's when you need them the most."  
  
Angel took that in before slowly standing up. Willow looked up at his sad face and even sadder eyes, then felt fresh tears well in her eyes. "I'm glad I'm leaving. I don't know if I can look at him for much longer," she thought guiltily. "His eyes."  
  
Willow got to her feet and looked towards the room Wesley and Cordelia had disappeared in to.  
  
"There's room upstairs if you wanted to get some sleep," Angel said rather uncomfortably.  
  
Willow shifted her gaze to the second floor balcony then back at Angel. "No, it's okay. I've got an early class and Xander needs his car back so he can get to work."  
  
Angel nodded.  
  
"I guess I'll be going then," she said in a soft voice.  
  
Angel nodded again as Willow moved up the steps and towards the front door. She stopped and turned to look at Angel one last time. He had climbed the stairs after her and now stood only a few feet away. He stood with his hands jammed into his pockets, his broad shoulders hunched, as he looked at her with a little lost puppy face. She tried to swallow down the lump that had formed in her throat, but was unsuccessful.  
  
"Don't look at me like that," she silently pleaded. "You're going to make me start to -" Tears again stung her eyes but this time she let them escape. "- Cry again". She tried to stop, but couldn't.  
  
"Told you," she sobbed. "Waterworks."  
  
"Willow," he said in a voice that was barely audible as he took several steps forward.  
  
As the tears continued to spill from her eyes, she surprised Angel - and herself - when she slid her arms around his waist. Angel held his hands away from Willow's body as she lay her head against his chest.  
  
"I miss her," she said in a strained and broken voice. "I really miss her."  
  
"I know," he said in a gentle voice as he slowly allowed his arms to fold around Willow.  
  
Angel held her as she wept and he felt the intense grief she was suffering. His grief would come later after Willow was gone; he knew it would be bad but he had no idea how bad.  
  
Willow's sobbing soon began to dissipate and she started to move away from Angel. She wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks then looked at the damp patch on Angel's shirt.  
  
"I'm sorry."  
  
"It's okay," he said gently. "Will you be alright driving back?"  
  
"Yeah. Once I get on that freeway I'll be fine. If you want to talk."  
  
"I know where you are."  
  
Willow nodded then glanced at the front door. "Bye, Angel."  
  
"Bye."  
  
Angel watched Willow leave the hotel and stood staring after her for a few long moments. In the distance, he heard a door open and he tilted his head slightly in its direction.  
  
Cordelia and Wesley stood in the reception area and looked at Angel who was standing motionless. Wesley started to move forward but Cordelia put a hand on his arm to stop him.  
  
"Let me," she said in a hushed voice.  
  
Cordelia moved out from behind the reception desk and towards Angel.  
  
"Did Willow leave?"  
  
Angel looked at Cordelia. "What?"  
  
"Willow. Did she leave?"  
  
He looked back towards the door. "Yeah."  
  
Cordelia moved up the steps and stood side-on to Angel. "Are you okay?" she asked gently.  
  
He shook his head once without a word.  
  
"Do you want to talk about it?"  
  
Angel didn't answer.  
  
"I'm here if you do," she said gently. "So's Wesley."  
  
Wesley stepped out from behind the reception desk and tried to think of something meaningful to say. "Angel, you mustn't not push your friends away. Not at a time like this."  
  
"Sometimes you have to," Angel thought to himself.  
  
He turned and approached the staircase.  
  
"Angel." Cordelia started.  
  
"I just need some time," he ground out then started up the stairs.  
  
  
  
NEXT DAY..  
  
Cordelia looked up from her cup of lukewarm coffee. She glanced towards the front door and sighed.  
  
"When was Wesley coming back with Fred?"  
  
"He didn't exactly say," Gunn said as he practiced swinging his home-made fighting axe his gang brothers had made for him. "You think Angel's gonna come down any time soon?"  
  
Cordelia looked at her watch and was surprised that it was after five in the afternoon. "I might go knock on his door."  
  
Gunn kept practicing as Cordelia moved around the reception desk and up the staircase.  
  
Wesley and Fred walked in to the hotel a few moments later. "Would you mind not doing that indoors?" Wesley requested.  
  
"Now why don't you go telling Angel that when he does it?"  
  
"Because Angel's got almost 250 years more experience than you."  
  
"Good point. But the only reason I do it in here is because there ain't enough room out in the courtyard. Cordelia got a little upset when I hacked one of the bushes out there to pieces."  
  
"Well, then, just don't do it while I'm around."  
  
"Fine." Gunn looked at Fred who was watching him. "What?"  
  
"Nothing," she said sheepishly.  
  
"So, did Wesley show you - "  
  
"He's gone," Cordelia said as she rushed down the stairs. "Angel's gone."  
  
"As in gone out?" Gunn asked.  
  
"As in gone gone. Some of his stuff is missing."  
  
"Angel's gone?" Fred asked. "Gone where?"  
  
"If I knew that now I wouldn't be freaking out, would I?" Cordelia said as she sat down on one of the steps.  
  
"I'm sure he just needs some time to sort things out after last night," Wesley said. "He'll be back when he's ready."  
  
"And what do we do without him 'til then?"  
  
"What we did after he fired us," Gunn said. "Manage and pray we don't get ourselves killed."  
  
  
  
THE END 


End file.
